Orlando Fringe review: 'Connected: An Interactive Experience'

Matthew J. Palm, Orlando Sentinel Theater Critic

"Hello everyone," the soothing voice says in your ear -- directly into your ear, as it happens, for at "Connected," each audience member wears a pair of earbuds. It's all a part of the interactive theme in this unusual show that combines theater, modern dance and a therapy session.

The high-concept presentation is effective in a pop-psychology kind of way. Short skits illustrate how easy it is to become disconnected from the people in our lives (and offer a no-holds-barred look at horrible parenting). Even better are the movement segments -- with dancers shifting positions in tight formation, oblivous to the others right in front of them. My favorite: a subway car bursting into joyous life as the zombielike passengers are inspired to acknowledge one another.

In between, that voice in your head, I mean earbuds, askes questions in a friendly Rod Serling manner -- Who abandoned you? How did it make you feel? It's strange, but sitting there in the dark, that hypnotic voice playing, I suddenly thought of a negative moment in my childhood that hadn't crossed my mind in years. Did that one moment affect how I connect?

This curiosity of a show is on to something in highlighting how we exist in our own little bubbles. For a moment, there in the dark, wrapped in streamers with my neighbor, I felt connected.